Thinking Between the Lines by Joaquin

Thinking Between the Lines by Joaquin - July 2026 Scholarship Essay

Poetry sucks! Or, at least, that’s what I used to think. I used to think my high intelligence was plenty enough to get me through school because I’m able to pick up on subjects quickly. And so, throughout my time in school, I have always taken and done very well in advanced classes, eventually culminating in dual enrollment as a junior and senior in high school, as well as a great opportunity to go to a prestigious university after high school. For me, every challenge came easy right up until my eleventh-grade dual enrollment English Literature class.
Halfway into the semester, we started our poetry unit. I really thought it would be like every other unit that I breezed through in the past. It wasn’t. We started off with a poem called “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theordore Roethke. I first thought that the poem was about the speaker’s dead father. It wasn’t. The poem was actually about the speaker reminiscing about times spent with his father, who was very much alive, who was not perfect but always made time to spend with the speaker. It was then that I realized maybe this unit would not be as simple as writing an informative essay or analyzing persuasive texts. Throughout the course of the unit, we explored many more poems, and at first, I couldn’t grasp the meaning. I felt like what the poets wrote was too vague, so I had difficulty understanding what they were trying to say. The more I practiced, the more I came to realize the purpose of the ambiguity. It’s so that I can put my own meaning, so that the poem comes to mean something to me. I understood that while there is an intended theme in each poem, it can be interpreted differently by any one person.
I believe this poetry unit did a lot to expand my critical thinking skills in a way that few other classes did because it made me question everything that I was thinking. It takes effort to think about what the poem means to you. It makes you reflect. It begs you to look more broadly. It helped me learn a lot more about how to analyze not only texts but the meaning behind the words. Where this became apparent was during my senior year dual enrollment US History class. During a lesson on the rebellion in the Philippines after the Spanish American War, the professor showed us some quotes from the American soldiers. Our assignment was to read through the soldier accounts and come back to the next class ready to discuss our thoughts. The accounts detailed the brutality of the conflict, which is easy enough to summarize. But, as I explored beneath the surface and looked deeper into the accounts, I was able to see beyond the physical violence described. I saw the way that language was used to dehumanize the Filipinos. By itself, the words spoke of physical conflict, but underneath they really spoke about social injustice and racism. During the next day’s discussion, the professor confirmed my thoughts were correct and an important part of the lesson he was trying to teach us. Without having had the practice that poetry provided, I wouldn’t have arrived at that conclusion without the guidance of the professor.
So, poetry doesn’t suck. That fateful poetry unit did a lot to expand my critical thinking skills in a way that few other classes did. I learned a lot more about how to analyze not only texts but the meaning behind the words. I better understood to see a deeper meaning in things. Poetry still is not one of my favorite subjects, but it is one I have come to appreciate.